Cell reselection commonly refers to a procedure allowing a mobile station in a mobile communication system to switch from communicating with its current cell to communicating with a neighbor cell, for example, while the mobile station is operating in an idle mode. Many mobile communication systems employ one or more neighbor cell lists to specify which neighbor cells the mobile station can consider for cell reselection. For example, neighbor cell lists relating to cells of some mobile communication systems, such as a third generation partnership project (3GPP) system compliant with the global system for mobile communications (GSM) standards, the enhanced data rates for GSM evolution (EDGE) standards, the universal mobile telecommunication system (UMTS) standards, or any combination thereof, utilize allowed cell lists (also referred to as whitelists) that are signaled to the mobile station and specify those neighbor cells to which cell reselection is allowed, with cell reselection to any unspecified neighbor cell generally not being allowed. Neighbor cell lists relating to other example mobile communication systems, such as a system compliant with the 3GPP evolved universal terrestrial radio access network (E-UTRAN) standards, utilize not allowed cell lists (also referred to as blacklists) that are signaled to the mobile station and specify those neighbor cells to which cell reselection is not allowed, with cell reselection to any unspecified cell generally being allowed.
Additionally, one or more cell reselection metrics are typically evaluated by the mobile station to determine whether to remain in communication with the current cell or to reselect to a particular candidate neighbor cell. Signal strength is one such metric. For example, 3GPP systems may require that, to reselect to an E-UTRAN candidate cell (such as during reselection from a cell implementing a GSM/EDGE radio access network (GERAN) to an E-UTRAN closed subscriber group (CSG) cell), the candidate E-UTRAN cell must have the best signal strength for the particular frequency. Such a requirement is commonly referred to as a “best on frequency” criterion. Accordingly, a mobile station may need to process both neighbor cell lists and signal strength metrics during cell reselection.